1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material and, more particularly, to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material in which a coloring stain caused during development processing and a coloring stain caused with time after development processing are reduced.
2. Description of the Related Art
A silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material is exposed imagewise, developed by an aromatic amine-based color developing agent, and forms a dye image upon reaction between a finally produced oxidized form of the developing agent and a dye image forming coupler (to be referred to as a coupler hereinafter). This coupler used in the color photographic light-sensitive material is generally a combination of yellow, cyan, and magenta couplers.
These couplers cause coloring stains regardless of the types of couplers. That is, the couplers in non-exposed portions are colored more or less during or after development processing due to deterioration of developing solutions, and compositions used in a development process, such as a color developing solution, a bleach solution, a fixing solution, a bleach-fixing solution, a washing solution, and a stabilizer.
The coloring stain has the following four main causes. The first cause is heat and humidity before a non-processed light-sensitive material is processed after its manufacture. The second cause is developing fog of a silver halide. The third cause is formation of a dye when a developing agent left in an emulsion layer is oxidized with oxygen or the like present in a bleach bath or air and then reacts with a coupler (e.g., a bleach stain). The fourth cause is deterioration with time of the developed light-sensitive material, which is caused by light, humidity, and heat after development processing.
The coloring stain which is dealt with the present invention corresponds to the third and/or fourth stains. The former stain is called "stain upon processing", and the latter stain is called "stain during storage".
In a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material, a stain formed in a non-exposed portion determines the presence/absence of clearing of an image. In addition, color mixing of a dye image is increased, and visual sharpness is degraded. In particular, when the light-sensitive material is used as a reflecting material (e.g., color paper or reversal color paper), the reflecting density of the stain is emphasized several times the transmission density, and image quality is degraded even by a slight stain. Formation of the stains thus poses a very important problem.
It is very difficult to sufficiently prevent a stain from forming in a non-exposed portion (stain during storage) by development processing unlike a so-called yellow stain caused when a coupler itself is decomposed by light or heat, although a discoloration inhibitor such as hydroquinones, hindered phenols, tocopherols, chromans, and coumarans is used.
On the other hand, a 2-equivalent 5-pyrazolone type magenta coupler is used together with a specific aniline compound to prevent this coloring stain (stain during storage), as proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,919. Use of a compound which reacts with a developing agent left in the developed light-sensitive material or an oxidized form of the developing agent for forming a dye upon coupling with a coupler to produce a substantially colorless product is proposed in EPO Nos. 255,722, 258,662, 2,287,655, and 230,048 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,350. In particular, even a slight magenta coloring stain is visually noticeable, and must be eliminated. When recording and preservation as the main purpose of the light-sensitive material are taken into consideration, strong demand has arisen for image preservation against light, heat, and humidity and prevention of formation of a magenta coloring stain. However, the conventional inhibitors as described above are not suitable for long-term preservation. The stains upon processing are not effectively prevented by the above methods.
An improvement in prevention of a cyan stain during storage is described in JP-A-62-173466 ("JP-A-" means unexamined published Japanese Patent Application). This specification describes a method of reducing the stain during storage by adding a specific compound to a cyan coupler. The effect, however, is not satisfactory. In addition, no effect is obtained for the stain upon processing.
In recent years, in order to satisfy the customer needs and protect natural environments, a stain upon processing and a stain during storage must be suppressed in development having a short developing time, i.e., so-called fast development, development in which processing solutions containing almost no benzylalcohol are used, processing requiring no or almost no washing, and processing using a processing solution in which the mixing ratio and the composition amount in the running condition are greatly changed.